Zelensky invited the United States to hold a trilateral meeting with the Russian Federation on Ukraine | News from Germany about Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed holding a trilateral meeting on Ukraine with the participation of US and Russian Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, as well as himself. “President Zelensky has proposed to President Biden, and we think it might work, to organize a trilateral meeting, possibly via videoconference, between President Biden, President Zelensky and President Putin,” Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, told a U.S. diplomat. by John Herbst on Friday, January 14th.

“We are still waiting for a reaction from the Russian side, but our American partners have taken our proposal with interest,” Yermak said.

Reuters notes that Zelensky’s initiative to hold a trilateral meeting on Ukraine without the participation of the European Union came against the backdrop of intensified German efforts to revive the so-called Normandy format, in which representatives of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France discuss the Ukrainian crisis. Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk called for the United States to join this format.

The upcoming visit of the head of the German Foreign Ministry to Kiev and Moscow

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will pay visits to Kiev and Moscow next week. The German Foreign Minister will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba in Kiev on January 17. Then she will go to Moscow. On January 18, her talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov are also scheduled there.

One of the main goals of the trip is an attempt “to achieve progress in the work of the Normandy format.”

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Author: Jan Walter, Kevin Mertens